<?xml version="1.0"?><rss version="2.0"><channel><title>Columns - Duathlon247</title><link>http://www.duathlon247.com/index.html</link><description>Latest columns on Duathlon247</description><item><title><![CDATA[Spring preview]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.duathlon247.com/article_5708.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[The evenings are just starting to get lighter and all across the country people are starting to feel the racing itch having suffered a winter disrupted with snow and cold weather. Before you know it spring duathlons will be blossoming all over the country and the ever growing mix of newcomers, old timers and triathletes looking to taste the greener grass of Duathlon&rsquo;s pastures will be donning their lycra and pinning on numbers. 

 This spring promises to blossom early than ever in Duathlon&amp;rsquo;s history with the national Duathlon Championships being held at the Clumber Park Duathlon on the 6th of March. Knowing the large number of athletes that want the chance to test themselves against the best nationally this will mean that many will be revved up and ready to go from March onwards so I have chosen six must-do races this spring and some of my inside tips on how to get the most from them. 

With this year&rsquo;s European Championships being in Nancy, France on 1st May, and then the Worlds at the other end of the season in Edinburgh many Duathletes will be thinking of trying to qualify for age-group teams for one of or both and the qualification races are:

ETU European Duathlon Champs. Nancy, France:

Clumber Classic Duathlon - 6th March
Stirling University Duathlon - 28th March
Steyning Duathlon - 5th April
 

ITU World Duathlon Champs. Edinburgh, Scotland:

Clumber Classic Duathlon - 6th March
Stirling University Duathlon - 28th March
Big-Cow Emberton Duathlon - 11th April
Cambridge Duathlon - 2nd May


For more information on applying for the age group teams and the qualification process click here:  

I&rsquo;ll start by previewing three big Classic races:

Clumber Classic Duathlon BTA National Championships - 6th March  
     
This is not one of the oldest Duathlons on the UK scene but has rightly gained itself a reputation amongst the best UK races. With a rolling run on closed roads within the park it provides an ideal competitive testing ground for running form before heading out onto the bike. Classic distance athletes find themselves doing two out and back runs on the first run and this is an ideal platform for seeing where you are in the race and where your rivals are too.  Just make sure you practice the &ldquo;I&rsquo;m gonna catch you even though you&rsquo;re three minutes ahead of me&rdquo; look for the second lap when the leader comes past. Either that or be the leader...Your choice! 
 
The bike leg is a strong bikers dream. I went from seventh after a bad run up to first with a minute lead by the end of the bike leg in the 2007 race, and this was proof that if you have a bad run (and I was crawling by the end!) you can still make good in-roads on this course. It&rsquo;s the sort of bike course that suits strong efficient bikers that can hold a good rhythm. And if that&rsquo;s not you then my top tip might just help:

Top Tip: The bike course takes in a long main road before you head back into Clumber Park and on this there is a painted white or yellow line which appears intermittently along the edge of it. When it does, try to ride on it and stay on it. You&rsquo;ll find it&rsquo;s much smoother and faster that the standard tarmac. Just make sure you keep focussed on the road conditions around you and take care if it&rsquo;s wet because the lines can become slippery.

Big Cow Emberton Duathlon  (Emberton) 11th April
             
The Emberton race is a classic which has become a mainstay of the national series and has hosted a number of National championships. It&rsquo;s a course which has rarely changed and as a result many of the competitors this year will have raced there before so, if you haven&rsquo;t, a drive around the bike course in advance would be advantageous so that you can see where the hills are and get a feel for the course overall.

 The run course is utterly pan-flat as it uses multiple-laps of a series of lakes on a service road. This could be seen as a blessing, but that would depend what kind of runner you are. Being pan-flat means that it becomes what I call a &lsquo;rhythm run&rsquo;;  meaning that your rhythm should hardly ever change save for the occasional speed bump on the way round. This can be some people&rsquo;s downfall though. Where Clumber has an early hill to force athletes to back off a bit and pace it Emberton Park has none of that and so it can be easy to run too fast over the first 5k, and then suffer badly over the second half as a result. Careful Pacing is the key on the first run.  The bike course is open and exposed and has two climbs of note on it. They are longer rolling climbs and again, when paced out correctly shouldn&rsquo;t leave you struggling to recover too much after them.

Top Tip: After your second transition, going out onto the final run, aim to have a lighting quick transition but then run just within yourself and holding back for the first 30 seconds. That will allow you to get beyond transition and onto the road having crossed a narrow section of off-road trail.  Running within yourself for those 30 seconds will just allow for your body to adapt without risking cramping before you unleash the beast on the final run. Oh;  and never EVER look back. It serves no purpose...

Steyning Duathlon (Sussex) 5th April 

Steyning has long been held on Easter Bank holiday Monday and this has always been a mixed blessing in the past. The fact that it is on a bank holiday means that the town centre run course and transition area become packed with people out to watch a good race and as such the atmosphere is excellent. The fact that the bike course for many years has snaked close to one of the main trunk roads down to the coast has been the source of problems in terms of traffic bunching up. The organisers have stuck with the date and now seem to have found the perfect all-round bike course which has a mix of fast stretches and some testing hills.  This is a race to do for the atmosphere on the run course, the slightly shorter first run (which suites the strong bikers!) and the fact that it&rsquo;s the ideal opportunity to take family and friends so that once the race action is over you can go and sample the coast (at spring time) which is just a short drive away.

Top Tip: I&rsquo;d say the majority of people overcook the first 3k of the opening run by going too fast. It starts downhill and has a great crowd spread along the main street which your ego will want to dash along but trust me, once on the quieter back road you&rsquo;ll be paying for it before you turn back onto the high street again. Even pacing and tunnel vision might just help you stay on track on the first run.    

Now I&rsquo;ve chosen some smaller races which really deserve a big reputation. These are my Hidden Jewels:

Maidstone Duathlon (Kent) 7th March  

A rolling country lane first run followed by a rolling (mostly) A-road bike course which is fast and exciting. The out and back nature makes it ideal for measuring your effort. A straight up and down two sides of a hill makes the short final run. Lovely people, nice atmosphere and easy to get to just off the A2 in Kent.

Top Tip: For your warm-up, run right out of the car park and up what will be the hill for the final run so that you can run the length of it and know how to pace it at the end of the race. 

1485 No Frills Duathlon (Market Bosworth) 21st March

A pan-flat run around a picturesque water park followed by a rolling country lane bike course. The bike course is a great blend of testing rises and fast windy lane sections. The final run is another flat fast run out to a turn and back. 
Top Tip: Wear trail shoes for the run sections if you have them. You could even wear cross country &lsquo;spikes&rsquo; just whack some elastic laces in them to save time.   

Knockburn Duathlon (Scotland) 4th April
 
Duathlon is set to be a big part of Scotland&rsquo;s sporting landscape in 2010 with the World Championships being held there in September. The Knockburn Duathlon is the final round of the Aberdeenshire winter series and comes not long after the Stirling world championships qualifier so it&rsquo;s an ideal time for Scottish Duathletes to polish their form on a beautiful course.

A loch-side first run gives way to a hilly and exposed cycle section before doing exactly the same run again.

Top Tip: The bike course has some tight and fast turns on it. Always remember: try to take these bends by going wide, tight, wide by clipping across the apex of the bend and staying low on the bike to maintain a low centre of gravity. Obviously make sure that you ride safely within the lane though.  

Gower Duathlon (Welsh Championships) 15th May

This young but ambitious event has gained the status of a Welsh Championship this year which should be the start of it growing into being one of the all time great British Duathlons. It deserves it with a course like that!

A slightly rolling cliff top run overlooking Rhossili beach will take your breath away before you head out onto a hard but exhilarating bike loop which takes in most of the Gower peninsula and really shows off the landscape before heading out and back to another stunning view which you could easily have missed on the final cliff top run. The views are so good you&rsquo;ll feel guilty for not stopping!

Top Tip: Make sure your tyres are well inflated. If it&rsquo;s wet you would be better leaving them at your standard pressure that letting any air out for better traction as it&rsquo;s a rural loop with often gritty roads and you don&rsquo;t want a puncture to ruin a great day out. Soft tyres deform more easily around a piece of grit or a thorn and welcome it into it&rsquo;s rubbery clutch. A hard tyre says &ldquo;Oi! Thorn! No!&rdquo;  and leaves it sitting upright for the next person behind you.




  ]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[The future of duathlon]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.duathlon247.com/article_5668.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[For the month of December I&#039;ve decided to write about where I feel our wonderful sport is at present and where it might go in the future. I should probably start by saying that what I write is of course just my own rambling musings (as regular readers will already know!) and that in no way do my ideas or comments reflect that of Duathlon247.com or it&#039;s partners. It&#039;s really just me and my Duathlon shaped trumpet so apologies if I offend anyone!
 
First of all I thought we&rsquo;d better address the present; duathlon is officially Triathlon&rsquo;s little sister and that is due to three things:

 
People outside the sport can be forgiven for thinking it&rsquo;s tri for non-swimmers. They are of course wrong, but we&rsquo;ll still forgive them.

It&rsquo;s governed in most countries and worldwide (at ITU level) by the national triathlon bodies and is therefore second fiddle to those bodies&rsquo; Olympic sport of Tri and as we all know; Olympics = funding and funding needs to be secured. It&rsquo;s not all sour grapes though as much of the lottery funding in the UK for instance has trickled down to support some of the Duathlon programmes and activities. I&rsquo;ll repeat the word &lsquo;Trickled&rsquo;.

That leads to my final point: It&rsquo;s not an Olympic sport and certainly on a European level, most governing bodies funding tends to be channeled into Olympic sports. You can understand it I suppose.


It is a great testimony then to a sport which is so under funded and under resourced that it has an ITU world cup series, multiple national series across the world, a Powerman long distance series and an ever increasing number of athletes who consider themselves pure duathletes.  

On a world scale, there&rsquo;s two powerhouses really: the first is the place where du originally spread from in the USA. There are multiple duathlon series attracting massive numbers of athletes in the States. The second is what we should think of as the joint entity in duathlon terms, that of France and Belgium. The two nations are home to some very high quality racing and support an ever growing number of Duathletes, who operate as Professionals racing regularly on the French and Belgian circuits. 

The two countries offer a very clear example of two different styles of races and formats and it&rsquo;s brings to the table the age old debate in Tri; Drafting or non-Drafting? 

Sorry folks &ndash; It would come up sooner or later.   

The European elite style of duathlon borrows very much from the its native style of cycle racing which predominates Belgium, France and Holland whereby the races are held on tight, town centre circuits and the races are designed more around which cafes and bars will be on the route than what will suit the riders best. This way, the race is made for the spectators primarily and big crowds come out to watch and even place bets on the eventual outcome. These drafting races are often open to pros and age-groupers alike. Of course, they tend to suit the strong runner who can &lsquo;hold a wheel&rsquo; well on a tight bike circuit and then run like a maniac afterwards.   

The American style is on the whole quite different with much bigger, open courses and a non-drafting format where the race becomes quite spread out. These tend to suit the all-rounder but it has to be said that, the &lsquo;epic&rsquo; courses and courses that suit the strong bikers tend to be out of town and out in the middle of nowhere as well. 

I feel it appropriate that I make a couple of my key feelings known right now before I go on:


Draft legal racing in both tri and du is wrong. It kills the very essence of the three leg test and virtually nullifies the bike leg unless the course is D&rsquo;Uezian (to coin a wonderful new phrase). It&rsquo;s just wrong. Somebody in a suit sat in an ITU office somewhere watching cycling on TV thought &quot;how can we be as popular as cycling? I know we&rsquo;ll try to ride how they do&rdquo;.  Wrong! End of.

Money comes into the sport through sponsorship primarily. Sponsorship is based on brand coverage and exposure and so therefore the races need to be watched and well attended for the sponsors to remain and see a return on their investment. That means taking the racing to the people whilst not losing any of the thrill of competing for the athletes.

   

Up until two years ago my fellow Duathlon247 columnist Clive Faine had been the headman on the ITU&rsquo;s Duathlon committee and he worked tirelessly to build a World Duathlon series. Sadly, since him leaving the post the series has dwindled along with the ITU&rsquo;s long course championships; which simply didn&rsquo;t happen this year.

My personal opinion is that one of the reasons the series is in trouble is that in its current form the races are having to be run as drafting races as the ITU has decided that&rsquo;s what is best for elite racing (Why? It&rsquo;s easier than non-drafting so why have the amateurs doing something which is harder than what the elites do?) and are not attracting great numbers of age-groupers to support non-drafting racing. It&rsquo;s a well known fact that the main reason such massive numbers of age-groupers are encouraged to take part at world and European championships is to pay for the event as a whole. And that&rsquo;s not necessarily a bad thing if everybody&rsquo;s happy. But what if the age-groupers are actually doing a different event to the Elites? Which they are. Are they still doing the same race or is it just a sideshow? After all; you can&rsquo;t really compare the times because of the drafting rule.

 
And then, straddling most of the world we have Powerman which seems to blend a bit of both worlds with tight close town centre runs and non-drafting bike legs. It would be wrong to suggest that Powerman is duathlon&rsquo;s Ironman as it&rsquo;s really closer to the 70.3 distance in tri terms, but there is a growing thinking amongst regular duathletes that Powerman is where the hardcore duathletes go for there competitive kicks and that has to be, presumably because the IPA (International Powerman Association) is a Duathlon only body and it doesn&rsquo;t have to guarantee funding or promotion for anything other than duathlon. It has to be noted that it also only uses the non-drafting format.

So that&rsquo;s where we&rsquo;re at.

The question is; where do we go from here? Well, I&rsquo;ll tell you:



We forget drafting altogether and use duathlon internationally as a shining example of what tri used to be. A test of the best across three legs. That way the Olympic programme is not upset and those strong elite bikers in tri who are fed up with their only option being to go long with 70.3s and Ironman can come to Duathlon where there would be parity across all races on the same course.  Before draft legal racing came in, age-groupers loved having the chance to compare their times on the same course as the pro&rsquo;s where as now, in ITU duathlon, that just isn&rsquo;t possible, even at world or regional championships. Why are the Pros drafting and the age-groupers aren&rsquo;t anyway?! Are we saying that the age-groupers don&rsquo;t have good enough bike handling skills?! Actually, lets not go there.

Or either push for du to become an Olympic sport (in much the same way that athletics has a 200m and a 100m it is simply another event within multisport) or duathlon has to be governed independently under one recognised banner away from the ITU. It&rsquo;s controversial I know but it may be the only way. Consider this; tri is the money earner and it&#039;s now been an Olympic sport since 2000 and is growing in it&rsquo;s media coverage. Why would you rock the boat and try to promote duathlon at all? It would just serve to water down your triathlon lobby to the world&rsquo;s media and event organisers alike. I&rsquo;m not saying that duathlon breaking away is the only way it will reach it&rsquo;s full potential. But then I don&rsquo;t need to.

Or finally go Back to basics. It&rsquo;s easy to become obsessed with wanting du to be as big as tri, and that may well be the mistake &ndash; to keep comparing it to tri in the first place. It needs to stand on its own two feet and I feel that the key to that is to tap into duathlon&rsquo;s strongest selling point; it&rsquo;s simplicity. All you need is a bike and some trainers. It&rsquo;s no surprise that the fastest growing form of Duathlon world wide is &lsquo;cross duathlon&rsquo; with it&rsquo;s off-road run and bike legs. Very little need for marshals, no need for road closures, the feel of a &lsquo;day out&rsquo; for spectators, and epic racing experience for spectators where skill and the sense of adventure adds to a more potent racing &lsquo;high&rsquo; - and all of this in conditions where drafting becomes almost irrelevant. It does seem to fit well. In Holland and Belgium a hybrid of cyclo-cross and duathlon is just starting to pick up pace in the parks in and around town centres and like cyclo-cross the races are short and fast. As a result they attract good size crowds and are fun for all; especially children.

  

Not having to be tied to a lake or swimming pool seem to make the off-road scene even more suited to duathlon than Tri so I&rsquo;m wondering if it&rsquo;s time that duathlon claimed all the woods and parkland as it&rsquo;s own and broke away from tri altogether. It borrows from all of the above ideas and it takes Duathlon to the people, right there in the parkland, that they are prone to visit anyway. 

Last year, here in the UK I took part in a Duathlon in Cheltenham which was held in just such a park and it illustrated my point perfectly. It was meant to be a triathlon with the swim being held in the pool next to the park, but the pool was out of order and so it was made into a parkland Duathlon instead. I received an invite to do it and although it wasn&rsquo;t advertised locally, exactly what I thought would happen did! I won&rsquo;t say there were crowds three deep all the way round as it was nothing like that but there was an undeniable presence of non-multisporters stopping in the park and choosing to take the time to sit and watch the race unfold over the three short legs. It provided a hint of what it could be like in the UK and in other countries if we keep it simple, take the sport back to its &lsquo;best across three disciplines&rsquo; roots and take the race to the people whilst combining the close, multiple-lap racing of cyclo-cross with the epic sense of adventure that comes from surviving a technically demanding course.   

 

       ]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[A final win for Team Mulhouse]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.duathlon247.com/article_5644.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[Last Saturday the French Team Championships were held in the South of France in a beautiful little town called Gruissan. For my team Mulhouse, this was a very special race because the team will no longer exist next year due to financial problems. We hoped to be able to win one more time in order to have a great closure to the season.
 

The distances were a 5km run, followed by a 20km bike and then a 2.5km run to finish. Our strongest opponents were the teams of Marville, Les Sables D&rsquo;Olonne and Gonfreville. Each team consists of a maximum of five athletes and three have to finish. I arrived at the start together with my teammates at Mulhouse, Sergio Silva (POR), Toumy Degham (FRA) and Roger Roca (ESP). Roca and Silva are usually the better runners, while Toumy Degham and myself are the better bikers.


The first 1km of the run was lead by Toumy Degham, because if Sergio Silva had taken the pace we would all have been tired after 1km, not a particularly ideal start to the race! We were running a very consistant pace which was more than fast enough for me after my three weeks of very easy recovery training after Powerman Zofingen. We started two minutes after the team of Marville and the gap remained the same during the first run, but we lost 15 seconds on the team of Les Sables.


During the bike I pushed the pace together with Toumy Degham. Sergio Silva kept up with us, but Roger Roca had to let us go after a few kilometres. Toumy and I were taking strong turns at the front and after 5km we were leading. We came into the second transition with a lead of approximately one minute over the team of Les Sables. The team of Marville suffered some bad luck on the bike leg and were not able to finish the race.


This meant that we didn&rsquo;t have to run all out on the second run, although our coach made us a panic just before the finish by telling us that we had to sprint! We finished with a comfortable lead of 50 seconds over Gonfreville, who were followed very closely by Les Sables.


It has been a fitting last race for the team of Mulhouse. This was my seventh season racing for the team and it will be very odd to race for Gonfreville who I have signed with next year.]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Exercise addiction]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.duathlon247.com/article_5630.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[Have you got an exercise habit? Can&rsquo;t do without that daily fix, then read on!

While I walked off the plane that safely delivered me to Barcelona airport I noticed a fresh stack of that day&rsquo;s newspapers and pilfered one for my drive to the altitude training resort of Font Romeu in the French Pyrenees. I have to do a bit of petty thieving now and then; it&rsquo;s the only thing that gets my heart rate above resting these days. I thought it would be a great thing to get stuck into while Joerie Vansteelant, and his coach Tim, prattle on in their best Dutch about Joerie&rsquo;s recent Powerman Weyer win. I even contemplated having a crack at the crossword, but it was a broadsheet so there was very little chance I was going to complete it without the aid of a search engine. Thirteen down: Ocean, three letters &ndash; maybe it wasn&rsquo;t going to be as hard as I initially thought. Although come to think of it &lsquo;Billy&rsquo; has five letters &ndash; when the going gets tough...

On scanning the &lsquo;Well being&rsquo; section I came upon an article titled &lsquo;I&rsquo;m addicted to running&rsquo; which I found interesting enough to think that I&rsquo;d write about it in my next column. It was either that or &lsquo;Taxpayers subsidise Miliband&rsquo;s holiday&rsquo;, which is neither a surprise nor anything to do with duathlon.

How many times have you said &lsquo;No&rsquo; to something, and that something can actually be rather important, because of training. You could be having the best night out on the town, just you, endless mojitos, and the Brazilian women&rsquo;s beach volleyball team, but come 11 o&rsquo;clock you&rsquo;ve got to dash and get some shut-eye because you&rsquo;re running at the ridiculously early hour of 6 o&rsquo;clock in the morning the following day! Why do we do this?

The endorphin high that can result from partaking in prolonged exercise such as swimming, biking and most commonly running, apparently shares qualities with the junkies triathlon of popping pills, snorting cocaine and injecting heroin. Rather scarily, scientists agree that it can also be as addictive. According to the article in question &lsquo;sudden withdrawal can lead to trembling, writhing and teeth chattering&rsquo;! Endorphins also have what initially appear to be the added benefits of producing analgesic like symptoms and a sense of well being. Now I&rsquo;m not going to argue for a second that something that makes you feel happy is a bad thing. However, if endorphins can mask the hurt and get you to the finish line, what can be the results when that high, which can last a few days, wears off? The all too common answer is pain, and lots of it.

It&rsquo;s a feeling many an athlete can relate to. You&rsquo;ve had a fantastic race and feel tired but high for a couple of days. Then for no apparent reason a particular part of your body decides to let you know that something isn&rsquo;t quite right.

Other symptoms and clues as to whether you&rsquo;re an addict include: over-commitment, fatigue, decreased ability to concentrate, an overemphasis on quantity rather than quality, training on injuries that quite obviously need attention sooner rather than later, and as mentioned above absence from certain events where your attendance should be without question.

You can have too much of a good thing, especially when there may be some consequences that don&rsquo;t rate particularly highly on your &lsquo;that&rsquo;s a bonus consequence meter&rsquo;. So, take that rest day when you need it, and try not to feel guilty because it really will benefit you in the long term. Right, I would write more but I&rsquo;ve got to go and ride my bike!
]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Powerman World Championship race report]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.duathlon247.com/article_5618.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[Last weekend Duathlon247 columnist, Joerie Vansteelant, followed in the footsteps of his legendary brother, Benny Vansteelant, when he won the Powerman World Championships. An incredible result considering it was his first time racing over the distance, but, even more outstanding is the fact he broke the world record by a whopping eight minutes and 25 seconds. Joerie sent us in this report on his Powerman World Championship debut.



Last weekend the 21st edition of the Powerman World Championships took place in the Swiss town of Zofingen. This race was my main goal for the year and has the reputation of being extremely hard! Although this was the first I&#039;d participated in, my hopes were to win the event. The distances were a 10k run followed by a 150k time trial and a last run of 30k. Because the very long distance is new to me, my preparation has been very different, and I didn&rsquo;t feel as confident as I usually am pre-race. The field was very strong with amongst others the Swiss winner from last year, Andy Sutz, the New Zealand triathlete Richard Usscher, Jason Spong (RSA) and Anthony Leduey (FRA). The start was at 8.48am, exactly 48 minutes behind the women&#039;s start time because there is also the extra competition called &#039;the battle of the sexes&#039;. There is an extra prize for the first male or female across the finish line.

The first run comprises of two 5k laps with a total of 250 metres of climbing, and this is considered a warm-up for what was is to come! I must say that I found the pace of the first run quite fast, so I sat back a bit and allowed the other athletes to set the pace and do the work so to speak. We came into the first transition with a fairly big group and all the favourite athletes were present. On the bike there were three laps of 50 kilometres, each lap included three hills making a total of 1600 metres of climbing over the total distance covered. During the first bike lap no one wanted to take the initiative and so the pace wasn&#039;t particularly fast. Because of the very big group it was difficult to respect the 10 metre drafting rule. I was afraid of getting a penalty, so I put myself in first position at the foot of the second hill of the day. I was riding my own pace and once over the top I could see that I had a small lead. I didn&rsquo;t know what to do, because this was a bit earlier to take off alone than I had planned. But my legs felt very strong, so I decided to give it a try without over-exerting myself. I continued to extent my lead and meanwhile the group behind me fell apart. During the bike I felt like I didn&rsquo;t have any weak moments and that showed as I came into the second transition with a lead of nine minutes over Andy Sutz and Josh Beck (SUI).

Before the race it was the second run I was most apprehensive about. Not only because of the distance, but mainly the hard running course. More than 500 metres are climbed during the 30k course, most of it off-road, spread over two laps of 15 kilometres. Loudly encouraged by the spectators I began the second run. Things were going very smoothly and according to plan, but I was still a little worried, wondering if I was running fast enough or not, and waiting for confirmation that the other competitors weren&#039;t gaining on me. After 5 kilometres I caught Erika Csomor, the first women, and halfway around the first lap I got the news that I had extended my lead. I also got to hear that I was running and biking record times, but records weren&#039;t really on my mind at that moment. After one lap I was a few minutes under the old record time, but I was still afraid of hitting the wall during the last lap. I kept taking my nutrition, which my coaches handed out perfectly, and my energy levels stayed up. The muscles started to feel very tired over the last 10 kilometres making it feel extremely hard, but I expected nothing less at that stage in the race.

The last few kilometres were downhill and I began to realise that I had produced an impressive performance. I crossed the finish line very, very happy in a new record time of 6.11.35, more than nine minutes faster than the old record. Last years winner, Andy Sutz, was second 16 minutes back, shortly followed by Anthony Leduey. This might just be the strongest and most impressive win of my career so far, so I will make the most of it and enjoy it!
]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Weyer did my legs go?  ]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.duathlon247.com/article_5614.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[Ok, I&rsquo;ll fill you in on the joke - Weyer is the town which hosts Powerman Austria and it was the scene of my most recent painful day on the Duathlon world circuit and that of a very humbling experience (it&rsquo;s bad &ndash; I know!).

I had decided to fill the summer gap in my Duathlon season by focusing on two big Powerman world cups which were exactly two weeks apart. The first was the 10k/60k/10k Powerman Vlaanderen in Belgium and the second was the 15k/78k/7k Powerman Austria in, well,  Austria. Anyway, considering I had been racing hard since March I knew it was going to be a gamble to get through two such hard races so close together but still, I looked upon it as an adventure and to add to the adventurous nature I decided do drive to both races in my newly acquired camper van.  Believe me, when it comes to getting to races and arriving relaxed you don&rsquo;t know how badly you need one of these until you have it! Driving to Geel in Belgium was a doddle.

The race, as always in Belgium, was a little different. In true Belgian style, the first run was super fast and was led out by the likes of Joerie Vansteelant and Anthony LeDuey, who were absolutely flying. I actually had a fairly solid run and bike to exit the bike in about 20th place - just one place down from my seeding of 19th. That was when the dreaded cramp sunk its fangs in and from then on the final run became survival -I lost 12 places! Ouch! That really was painful. Fellow Brit Lee Piercy had been ahead of me until the &lsquo;man with the hammer&rsquo; got him as well and he had to pull out.


 Some people might not realise just how hard Powerman is. Now, those who have met Lee will know that he is an absolute giant and rock solid too, and so to illustrate my point, when I found him, having crossed the finish line, he was a shivering wreck and barely able to raise his head. Shortly afterwards he was taken to hospital. Such is the nature of Powerman. And so I was first Brit at the finish, but apart from that I wasn&rsquo;t exactly happy with my time or position in the race having lost so many places on the second run.
I&rsquo;m glad too say there was some solace for Lee by the way,as his girlfriend, Emma Dews, won the ladies event with a performance that really made the Du world sit-up and take notice. She follows in the illustrious footsteps of Annie Emmerson, Vicki Pincombe and Cat Morrison as a Powerman winner. Big respect Emma! It was also nice to see Michelle Parsons back with a great second place after a long comeback from Achilles surgery. Michelle is such a tough competitor and it&rsquo;s testament to her that she can come back to the top of the world so quickly. Their performances as first brits makes mine look, well, pathetic. Michelle went onto finish third at Powerman Austria too - a race she&rsquo;s won before so she&rsquo;s on the way back to the very top.

And so onwards to Austria and WOW what a place. I drove for 18-hours across two days in my now &lsquo;faithful&rsquo; camper van and arrived in a country that I had never visited before and yet I felt so very much at home.  The mountains in the national park region are just breathtaking and having arrived on the Wednesday I used Thursday to recky the bike course. I suddenly realised that Powerman Geel was a VERY, VERY easy race. I had raced on courses like this in my road racing days as a cyclist, but I was riding in a bunch not trying to time trial around it, and more to the point I hadn&#039;t just run 15k flat out. The main climb was well over 8k in total and had three very steep steps on it. I rode it in training on the Friday with my wife, Leda, who had come along on the trip as my soigneur delux - never have I looked upon a mountain bike&rsquo;s granny ring with such jealously (and she wasn&rsquo;t even using it).

Anyway, onto the race. At first it all went so smoothly. Pasta and espresso in the camper by the start and then feet up and watch all the other athletes arriving and buzzing around while I lay back on my sofa (camper - you need one in your life, ok?!) and contemplated the start. I had a good warm up and arrived on the start to find myself lined up next to the great man; Vansteelant himself. The start went well and the run went to plan too. It traced it&rsquo;s way out of Weyer in the direction of the mountain valley and then back as it crossed the river a number of times. I was in a good group as we headed out onto what has to be the most epic bike course in World Duathlon.

The first accent of the main climb saw some drop off and a couple take-off ahead. I figured the best option on the bike leg was to take the first main climb steady and then start to wind it up. Little did I know what was to come. I had been told by Oli Mott and Toby Jameson, who have both done very well in the race previously, to expect fans and crowds on the course which were unlike any other Duathlon in the world and they were so right. On the run I just couldn&rsquo;t get my head around how one family for instance, who had set their dining table up outside their house next to the road could stand up from their meal and hammer the table, screaming until they were hoarse for every single athlete that passed &ndash; first to last the same. This was the pattern all around the course. One of the main climbs on the bike course had a massive crowd complete with writing on the road and even a Tour de France style Devil painted from head to toe in red with fork and tail to match running alongside you screaming a strange German/ Dutch mix in your ear. Even on the quieter parts of the course out in the middle of nowhere in the mountains there were other sports mad lunatics hammering out their homage to this epic event. One such man illustrated the spirit perfectly. He looked a respectable middle aged man stood alone (strangely) outside his small isolated farmhouse on the edge of a mountain and as I passed on the first of two laps there he was, hammering out a ferocious beat on an up turned metal dustbin with what looked like a baseball bat. When I passed on the second lap the bin was virtually flattened and he had taken to his knees in order to still beat it hard enough to be heard. As I said, the crowds are like no other in world Duathlon.    

Anyway, sadly there&rsquo;s no happy ending to my story and therefore I&rsquo;ll cut it mercifully short(er). On the second lap I took a gel from Leda at the top of the main climb and that was that. I&rsquo;d been using Sport Beans until then and at that point I ejected all of my nutrition onto the beautiful Austrian mountainside and as a result, and to no surprise, the plug was pulled, the lights went out and the house fell down to use multiple metaphors. I just lost it big time, and as a result lost touch of the group I was with and went from around 23rd down to about 40th by the end of the bike, and then 42nd by the end of the cramp ridden run.  I saw people I had passed ages ago streaming by and there was nowt I could do about it. I was in what I call &lsquo;low power mode&rsquo;. The pilot light was still on but the boiler room was collecting dust.

The final run was terrible and for the first time ever in my Duathlon life I was just surviving. Being passed was irrelevant. Just getting to the finish was my goal. To hear I was 42nd  was pretty bad considering I was seeded 17th in the world going into the race, but with what happened I was just glad to finish.Why was I sick? I have no idea. The story doesn&rsquo;t end there though. I drove the 16-hour journey back through six different countries (Austria, Germany, Luxembourg, Holland, Belgium, France, England) and then slept for a solid 1- hours the next day to help recover. On waking I had an espresso to help refuel and decided to check my emails and the results of the race to see how much time I had lost. I was, shall we say, dis-chuffed to find that I was the only person in the whole race to have been DQ&rsquo;d! I have no idea why at all. I&rsquo;ve written and asked why but have no answer as yet. I&rsquo;ve now resigned myself to the strangely comforting thought that they are kindly trying to cover up my woeful performance by DQing me. And why not, I deserve it.
One last thing - if you do any Duathlon in the world before you hang up your wheels and racing flats do Powerman Austria. The course is epic, the crowds are great and the area is just something else. You&rsquo;ll find it particularly green at the top of the mountain. 
]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Victory comes to those who wait...]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.duathlon247.com/article_5603.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[Hi everyone,


Since the middle of July I have been staying at my flat in the French Pyrenees. It&rsquo;s a little town called Font-Romeu at 1800m altitude. There is also a big training centre and a lot of top international athletes come here such as Paula Radcliffe. 


My first three weeks on the training camp were very heavy. I had a lot of volume and I felt very tired when I went back home to compete in Powerman Geel (BEL) on 9th August. The first run was still okay, but on the bike I felt completely empty and I had no power at all. I finished third behind Anthony Leduey (FRA) and Lino Barruncho (POR). This was really the maximum I could achieve that day. Of course I was disappointed and a little worried, but somewhere later I knew the hard work would give its results.


After Geel I came back to Font-Romeu, together with my coach. The weekly volume was a little less but the intensity of the workouts was higher. However, after a big running day of 38 km, spread over two workouts, I started having problems with my back. I was very worried because I was not able to run at all. Thankfully, my coach is also a physiotherapist and after a few days of treatment the pain was almost gone.


Last weekend the beautiful town of Weyer played host to Powerman Austria. This was the fourth time I have competed in this race. The first three times were a success and I hoped that I could win this time as well. After a not so great race two weeks before at Powerman Belgium I hoped that I could show that my current form is good. At the start there was a very strong field, with among others Andy Sutz (SUI), Jason Spong (RSA) Anthony Leduey (FRA), Karl Prungraber (AUT).


The first run was two laps, which made 15,6 km in total. Leduey took the lead from the start and we were quickly seperated from the rest of the field together with Spong, Sutz and myself. Spong had to let us go after approximately five kilometres and a bit later Sutz was also dropped, after an acceleration from Leduey. It seemed that Leduey took off a little to fast because after eight kilometers I took the lead and he was not able to follow me. I continued at my own pace and came into the first transition with a 40 seconds lead on Leduey, shortly followed by Sutz and Spong.


The cycling course was changed this year, and this made the race quite a bit harder with the total distance longer at 82.4 km spread over two laps, and more testing hills. Immediately after transition I felt really powerful and I used this to extend my lead. Shortly after transition there was a steep climb of a few kilometres with some parts at a gradient of 18%. Once over the top my lead was almost two minutes. The bike went very smoothly for me and I came into second transition with a very comfortable lead of eight minutes.


I could afford to take the second run of 7.3 km very easy and enjoy my win. I reached the finish very satisfied after 3h27min, seven minutes in front of Anthony Leduey and Andy Sutz. In the evening I had a drink with the people from the organization and  the very friendly homestay family.


After the race I came back to Font-Romeu to finish my preparation for Powerman Zofingen. A lot of people wonder why I come back here, because there is not so much training left to do. This is just because I almost always feel at my best when I do a race immediately after altitude training.


Tom Lowe joined me here for the last two weeks. We have done a lot of training camps together in the past, lets hope he is able to race again next year, because he has been injured for too long now.


So my next race is the Powerman World Championships in Zofingen on 6th September, and this is my main goal for the season. This will undoubtedly be a very hard and tough race because it is the first time that I will have competed over this kind of distance, which comprises of a 10km run, followed by 150km on the bike, and a 30km run to finish. But the dominating win in Austria has given me a lot of confidence.


Good luck to all racing in Zofingen!

Joerie]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Definitely, no swimming.]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.duathlon247.com/article_5571.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[At Last, a site dedicated entirely to the world of Duathlon! Not a rubber suit or steamed up goggle in sight! Not a single vaseline coated, zip struggling, kicked in the face triathlete in sight! Well, except for those who secretly have an admiration for triathlon&rsquo;s (more) significant other! I could go on with all my &ldquo;&lsquo;why Tri when you can just Du it&rdquo; propaganda but if you are reading this then you&rsquo;re already enlightened aren&rsquo;t you? We get to wear socks - let&rsquo;s leave it at that.

I thought I&rsquo;d start my column by introducing myself a bit and explaining how I came to be involved with Duathlon. Whilst at school in Hillingdon, West London in the mid nineties I became part of the mountain biking boom and having started racing at the age of 13 
I progressed through to the junior ranks. This of course led to me getting a road bike to train on and inevitably I moved into road racing by the time I was 17. This may well have had something to do with my suspect &lsquo;off road skills&rsquo; but I couldn&rsquo;t possibly say!  After that I worked my way steadily up through the British road cycling scene of national series and premier calendars and then, as an elite cyclist, having left University at 22 I went full-time and moved to France where I was based in a team which housed other top young Brits who have gone on to great things such as Dan Lloyd, Alex Coutts and Andrew Jackson. Although I loved racing at this level, and amongst it I had some good results, I started to get the feeling that even at the age of 24 I had reached my best as a road rider and that there might be something more. 

I think a multisport seed had been planted in my brain back when I was 16 when I had been asked to compete for my borough in the London Youth Games triathlon. I tried to explain to the team manager that just because I had come third in the cycling time trial on the Saturday that was no reason to expect me to be any good in the triathlon on the Sunday but he wouldn&rsquo;t have it. Well, I was last out of the pool by some minutes having had to stop and catch my breath a number of times in front of the sniggering crowd. As a 16-year-old lad being beaten my 12 year old girls never looks good. So out onto the bike leg around Crystal Palace Park and I rode so furiously to make up ground that I managed to snap my saddle off and had to complete the bike leg standing up. 
Once off the bike I then discovered that &lsquo;running sitting down with a bear hanging on to your back&rsquo; feeling which we all come to love in the end (don&rsquo;t we!?). I managed to hang on for sixth even though it was some way behind the winner, a certain Stuart Hayes. Even though it had been a humiliating experience there was always something in my mind through my cycling days that running and biking combined was something I could master. I wasn&rsquo;t deluded &ndash; there really was no hope for my swimming! I kept running alongside my bike training even as a full-time athlete and this was often kept covert as my team manager would have gone mad if he had known.                                     

By the start of the 2004 season I was ready to make the switch and see where duathlon would take me. Since then I&rsquo;ve had the most amazing time. I&rsquo;ve travelled to some awesome places and met so many great people. What has always been so refreshing is that as duathlon is an emerging sport which is largely unfunded and there is very little money to be made or won doing it (yet!) and so there tends to be a much purer sport even at World Cup level where people compete because they simply want to achieve their goals and better themselves. There were some elements of the cycling world including the use of illegal drugs, riders paying to win races and the cut throat nature of the peloton in general which, for me, couldn&rsquo;t be further from the feeling of the duathlon scene all the way up to the top level.   

It&rsquo;s a quiet time for duathlon right now as we duathletes are blessed to have two seasons in each year with a lovely block of summer sun tanning, ahem... I mean base training in between. However, if you&rsquo;re a Powerman like me then the summer is far from quiet. I&rsquo;m doing Powerman Geel in Belgium and then Powerman Austria in August so I&rsquo;m building into three hard weeks of training right now. As I write it&rsquo;s 11:00am on a Tuesday in July and I have a 90 minute run with short hill reps to do. There&rsquo;s a thunder storm kicking off with hammering rain outside but I love that. As a pure cyclist I would have loathed it but I relish running in the rain. Just as long as I don&rsquo;t have to swim - yes, I am still scarred!]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[You never really know how important something is...]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.duathlon247.com/article_5565.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[You never really know how important something is in your life, how much your life revolves around it, and how much you really enjoyed whatever it is, until it&rsquo;s gone. The last time that I competed in a duathlon was in a French GP series race for my club, Mulhouse Olympique Triathlon, in July 2007. I had the honour of running around the second 5km with my teammate Benny Vansteelant thinking &lsquo;Wow my knee really hurts&rsquo;, not expecting to still be seeking treatment more than two years on, and with a recent ten mile time trial my only competition since that day in Calais. 

All this was two weeks after I recorded my best ever result at the European Championships in Edinburgh and I was in the best form I&rsquo;d ever been in, and may ever be in. Initially I was a miserable, short tempered and not particularly friendly idiot. However, you dig yourself out of that relatively quickly and once you start seeking treatment and realise there are people in a far worse position than yourself you just get on with it. I was lucky; I have always been able to cycle and swim and one day hope to be back on the start line. Others, including my teammate on that day, weren&rsquo;t and aren&rsquo;t so lucky.

I love duathlon and am passionate and sometimes a little outspoken about the sport. It&rsquo;s given me fantastic opportunities, many happy memories, and helped to shape the person that I am. I&rsquo;ve had a whinge about the British Triathlon Federation and it&rsquo;s support for duathlon, the selection policies for major championships, as well as the selections themselves, among many other things. The BTF have a hard job on their hands though, and are never going to please everybody.

There are many things that can be improved within the sport, and in future posts I&rsquo;ll start to explore these. It&rsquo;s not just a case of identifying the faults in duathlon, you have to provide possible solutions to the problems if something is ultimately going to improve. At all levels, and with feedback from everyone involved, we can take this sport in a direction that will benefit all, including those who at the moment think a duathlon involves skiing and shooting but in the not too distant future will find themselves with that rather unpleasant feeling in the legs that comes with running off the bike.

We have our work cut out though, and the BTF have many things to keep them busy that are well above duathlon on the list of priorities &ndash; I think there&rsquo;s something big happening in 2012. That said we have the biggest race on the duathlon calendar coming to our shores in September next year, namely the ITU Duathlon World Championships. The weekend will be a great boost to the sport in the UK, and show our passion for it as well as our success at it.
 
And what better way is there to gather feedback, formulate ideas, address issues, keep everyone abreast of news, future events, results, hear from some of the beginners right up to the best athletes, and everything run/bike/run than duathlon247.com.

Watch this space.]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Why you should 'du' a duathlon!]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.duathlon247.com/article_5569.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[Duathlon&#039;s World #1, Cat Morrison takes an interesting look at the reasons why, if you haven&#039;t done already, you should take part in a duathlon! Having raced a good few of them, Cat is well placed to speak about the advantages and disadvantages (not that there are many) of racing duathlon. The multi world medallist can&#039;t recommend them highly enough and suggests that it would be good to see a few more triathletes giving this fun but tough multisport event a go!

Cat will be contributing regularly to Duathlon247 bringing us all her latest news plus her views on the sport. She&#039;ll also be talking about any progress (which we will hopefully be seeing) that is being made to improve the profile of triathlon&#039;s sister sport.



D Definitely worth a try. Whether you are a seasoned or novice triathlete, multisporter, runner or biker, or just someone looking for a new challenge, competing in a duathlon should be on your &ldquo;to do&rdquo; list.

For those new to the multi sport world, a duathlon is an excellent introduction. Competitive athletes will find that a little duathlon training does wonders for their overall fitness and triathletes will see improvements in transition skills and their ability to run off the bike. 

Most races will allow mountain bikes (but do check when you enter) so duathlons can be great for new comers and novices. Rake around in the garage or beg, steal or borrow from friends and family! There are also a variety of distances and terrains to suit all tastes. Consider a team event with friends and family.

 
U Undoubtedly the underdog to her big sister triathlon. However, from personal experience, I have to say that on the whole the duathlon scene is a big friendly place. Duathletes seem to be a little more laid back and welcoming than their triathlon counterparts (I can say this as I compete in both events!). The support that I have received over the years from the GB age group team has been fantastic.

A Advantages of duathlon include: watching lots of nice bottoms in lycra. Sorry, seriously &ndash; as I have already mentioned, duathlon is a sport for all &ndash; seasoned athletes and novices alike. If you are thinking about doing a triathlon, a duathlon can give you a taste for the event whilst taking out the swim which can be one of the stressful disciplines for many. 

The cross training aspect (bike and run) can be beneficial to many in preventing or managing injury.

Duathlons are a good way to kick start or finish off your season. When the weather is still a little inclement for donning that wetsuit, a duathlon can satisfy the need to compete. 


Duathlons are a great way to introduce children to multisport. Run-bike-run events can be organised very easily. Most kids run and many have bikes. Bikes can be shared if in short supply and for many a swim can be intimidating so a duathlon is a perfect introduction event.

T Travel the world! If you get really hooked, there are plenty of races all over the place that you can enter &ndash; double them up with your holidays (that should go down well with the kids and spouse) or get competitive and challenge yourself to qualify for the GB team. Just think, in 2010 you could travel as far a field as Edinburgh for the world duathlon championships!

H Hate it because it hurts so much to run twice!

L Love it because you love the hurt that comes with running twice!

Love it or hate it, duathlons are like marmite. Many people won&rsquo;t go near a duathlon. I know many talented triathletes who would make great duathletes but the very thought of having to run TWICE is enough to send them into a jelly-like state. I have to say that it&rsquo;s usually the good swimmers who shy away. Of course, there is always the exception to the rule: take Vanessa Fernandes as a super example.  BUT if running and biking are your strong points then make the most of them by facing up to the duathlon challenge.

O Overdraft. Be warned &ndash; duathlon, like triathlon (as many of you will know) involves toys (bikes, helmets, shoes, sexy lycra&hellip;.). And we all get caught eventually in wanting bigger, better, newer and shinier things as we get more and more involved. Remember that in the long run (no pun intended!)  the best and possibly least expensive investment you can make is in training your heart, lungs and legs.
 
N Next stop? Get out that race calendar and book a spot in an event that tickles your fancy!]]></description></item></channel></rss>
